Tis the season to be merry, and what better way to do that than indulging in some of the finest ciders and meads at The Great Indian Cider and Mead Festival 3rd Edition. There will be specially-curated range of finger food to pair along with your beverages, and live bands to add to the weekend vibes. But most importantly, there are many different ingenious brands coming together to showcase their innovative brews.
GROWING POPULARITY IN THE CITY
The city is definitely ready for a cider and meads festival, says Rohan Rehani of Moonshine Meadery, claimed to be the first meadery in the country. “In brewpubs across the city, cider and meads have always been amongst the top three styles sold by volume. There is a growing demand of refreshing fruit-forward carbonated beverages, ciders, and meads fulfil that demand perfectly,” he says, adding, “We’ve been very happy to see the growing acceptance of meads. Since they are a new category of alcohol altogether, it’s great to see other brands launching meads as well — it’ll help establish the category more strongly and will benefit the industry as a whole.”
Sameer Patwardhan of Kimaya Brewing Company says that their Karvanda, Mango and Kokum cider have always received a warm response from city-pub goers. Krishna Naik, who is bringing in Lark Meadery from Mumbai, says, “As one of the founders of Gateway Brewing Co., I have seen the craft beer segment grow over the last five years. Cider and mead has piggybacked on craft beer’s popularity, making its presence felt in bars, brewpubs and popular craft beer festivals.”
Priyanka Thakur Patel, who is bringing another brand called Wildcrafts from the sister-city, says, “Pune city has pretty much spearheaded the brewery revolution way back in 2009 with the opening of Doolally. Ciders and meads are just as versatile as craft beer and they are fast picking up even more than beers. Most people aren’t fans of the hoppy nature of beer and are more focused on gluten-free alternatives such as ciders and meads.”
Tresha Guha, brand manager, Doolally, which is hosting the event, says that now is an incredible time to be a cider drinker in the country. “Considering that this is the third edition of the Great Indian Cider Festival, there is no doubt the city of Pune is ready. For the last two years, this festival has seen the biggest assortment of ciders and meads that India has ever seen. This festival is proof,” she says, adding, “This event will exhibit a kind of cooperation movement between breweries, meaderies, in and around Pune to showcase the most innovative and delicious ciders, meads and fruit beers.”
Christopher Champalle of Toit Brewery (Pune) points out that festivals are a way to get people to realise that the craft culture is buzzing in India. “It is a celebration of the local, authentic, creative craft culture in the city. Pune has always been on the forefront of the craft cider culture, and organising an exclusive festival is just the way forward,” he insists.
Representing Nashik-based Cerana Meadery, Devdatt Phadnis shares how this event serves a dual purpose of allowing the visitors to have a gala time with their friends and family while showcasing the new styles of alcoholic beverages.
MUST TRY AT THE EVENT
Guha shares that breweries have been encouraged to experiment and come up with interesting small-batch stuff, with a maximum of 50 litres per variety. The Doolally brewing team, she adds, will be showcasing Strong Apple Cider, Mango Cider, Karvanda Cider, Hot Mulled Christmas Cider.
Lark Meadery will be offering their craft wine spritzer and the honey melon at the festival. Naik describes, “Wine spritzers are wine-based fizzy (carbonated) beverages with lower alcohol content (5-5.5abv). Our innovation-driven product development is strongly influenced by our involvement in the craft beer segment. It is made using the finest honey, apples and exotic hops and we will be launching with two flavours — Lark Golden Apple and Lark Honey Melon at the festival.”
Talking about Kimaya Brewing Company’s rose and Kokum ciders, Patwardhan says, “Our inspiration has always been to focus and feature iconic native produce from Maharashtra. The salty, slightly tart, tangy-yet-sweet taste of Kokum along with its spectacular bright purple colour made it our personal favourite. We love to experiment with our limited series launches, so we used petals of pink (gulkand) roses, white roses and our regular red roses from our brewery garden in the fermentation process to impart a stellar bouquet of aromas which resulted in the rose cider.”
Moonshine Meadery is coming out with a Christmas Apple Pie Mead and Guava Chilli Mead. “Both are part of our small batch MeadLab series — seasonal releases of styles which aren’t available around the year. The Christmas Apple Pie Mead is our Apple Cider Mead aged on quintessential Christmas spices — cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and raisins. It is essentially an apple pie in a glass. The Guava Chilli Mead has fresh guavas fermented with honey and then spiced with some Naga ghost chillies,” says Rehani.
Toit will offer the Stray Apple and the Hoppy Stray Apple varieties. “The stray Apple is an off-dry, fruit forward, sparkling cider made from fresh pressed Himalayan Apples. It is the perfect choice for those looking for a more refreshing, easy-drinking low-alcohol cider, brilliant, straw-coloured, and highly effervescent like a Champagne wine, with a semi-dry tart finish. This classic Stray Apple Cider was dried hop to add complexity to its flavour and aroma to result in the Hoppy Stray Apple. The citrusy, lime, and tropical fruit flavour and aroma from the hops complement perfectly well the fresh apple cider. It is a well-balanced, semi-sweet / tart-flavour cider, with a slight bitter finish,” describes Champalle.
Cerana Meadery has quite a few novelties to try. Says Phadnis, “Our Jamun Melomel is made using Jamun honey and Jamun fruits sourced from Maharashtra, the Pomegranate Melomel uses pomegranate from Nashik and multi-floral honey from Himachal Pradesh, the Chenin Blanc Pyment is made from using Chenin Blanc grapes sourced from Sinnar and multi-floral honey from Himachal Pradesh and the Christmas Braggot is one of the rare styles of beer that adds a layer of complexity because of honey in addition to layered malts. This is Cerana Meads first ever collaboration which is with Bombay Duck Brewing.”
Wildcrafts is bringing a variety of fresh flavours. “We have our signature Hard Apple Cider that is already available in bottles. Our Mulberry Cider is loaded with fresh seasonal mulberries from Maharashtra that provide dark and fruity notes. Our Coffee Mead rounds off our portfolio for the festival,” says Patel.
SEASON’S SPECIAL
For the holiday season, Kimaya Brewing Company will be launching a decadent Vanilla Porter. “Hints of dark chocolate, coffee and vanilla all melded together for the perfect holiday cheers. We are also working on recreating a cinnamon-spiced beer for later this month,” informs Patwardhan.
Toit is offering their classic Santa Ale this season. “It is a Christmassy spicy beer, with a spiciness from the combination of star anise, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, ginger and allspice,” says Champalle.
Cerana Meadery is brewing a special mead with ginger and cinnamon along with a very earthy spicy Jamun honey which will warm you up in the chilly winters. “We are calling it Yule spice,” says Phadnis.
Wildcraft is bringing out a special Mulled Grape Cider. “Brewed with spices like cinnamon, star anise, nutmeg and fruits such as oranges and strawberries, this magical drink is set out to be the perfect accompaniment as you unwrap your presents under the Christmas tree,” says Patel.
ST READER SERVICE
The Great Indian Cider and Mead Festival 3rd Edition will take place at 1st Brewhouse, Corinthians Resort & Club, NIBM annexe, on December 15, 1 pm onwards
